Bruce Arena must go

[SoccerPrime]

Fire Eliinger!

Oops sorry, wrong thread.

[Merrill]

Not necessarily, how about: Fire Arena >>> Fire Ellinger >>> Hire Arena 🙂

[AreliusIV]

Firing Arena not the answer for U.S. soccer


Fire Team USA soccer coach Bruce Arena.

Why?

People who wouldn't know a soccer ball from a squash are calling for Arena's head.

They're demanding that Arena, who coached the U.S. in the last two World Cups, be replaced.

Again - why?

Because we're the U.S., that's why.

Because we believe we're the best in everything - even soccer, a sport that most Americans treat with lip-service once every four years.

Sure, Arena's a smug and haughty know-it-all, but so what? Those are some of his best qualities and they help make him an effective coach.

Arena deserves a lot of credit for making U.S. soccer more respectable.

In fact, instead of blaming Arena, we should thank him for bringing U.S. soccer this far.

Nevertheless, don't be shocked if Arena isn't on the sideline for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Someone has to take the fall for the U.S.'s inability to fight the good fight on soccer's biggest stage.

It might as well be Arena.

Arena is the perfect scapegoat when you consider that players win games, but coaches lose them.

Blaming Arena is an easy cop-out. The U.S. didn't have the horses.

Say what you will about Landon Donovan's World Cup meltdown - Arena played him out of position, the sun was in Donovan's eyes - but if he's the face of U.S. soccer, a face-lift is required.

Fire Arena, if you must. But don't stop there.

The U.S. Soccer Federation is trying desperately to narrow the talent gap by targeting and developing more players at the grass-roots level. But it also needs to do a better of getting the word out.

Let more elite young athletes know they can become rich playing soccer - the same way they can get rich playing other popular sports in the U.S.

England's Chelsea bought the contract of Michael Essien of Ghana from a professional team in France for $40 million. There are potentially dozens of Essiens in the U.S., but they never give soccer a chance. It's hard to find fault with that logic because of the potential riches they can earn playing in their own backyard in the NBA, NFL, and Major League Baseball.

America Scores, one of the first programs supported by the U.S. Soccer Federation, is a start in addressing the talent gap. It's an urban public school soccer and literacy program based in Washington, D.C., that operates in 13 major cities across the country, including Cleveland. It offers inner-city public school students the opportunity to play soccer while learning how to express themselves through creative writing and community services.

About 3,300 student-athletes participate in America Scores programs. But that isn't nearly enough. There should be at least 10 times as many participants.

"The question is do you have a 15-year-old who loves the game and isn't in the system - I'm talking about a Hispanic-American," U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati told reporters after a 2-0 loss to Ghana eliminated America from the World Cup.

"Or a 15-year-old who doesn't love the game who should be in the system - maybe an African-American. Those are big pieces of the puzzle."

Firing Arena is a short-term solution to a deep-rooted problem.

[RSL Fortaleza Menina]

Wow, that's good stuff AreliusIV.

Funny, that's word-for-word the exact same thoughts, in their unattributed entirety, that John Harris at the Toledo Blade had.

Great minds think alike, I guess...

[AreliusIV]

Originally Posted by RSL Fortaleza Menina

Wow, that's good stuff AreliusIV.

Funny, that's word-for-word the exact same thoughts, in their unattributed entirety, that John Harris at the Toledo Blade had.

Great minds think alike, I guess...

Nope, actually I cut and pasted the print-view version of his article. For some reason it didn't pick up his name as author of the article...